Mother-Son Fun Activity

A few weeks ago, our Alconbury PTA, organized a Mother-Son activity night at one of the old hangers at RAF Molesworth. Just like Father-Daughter dance in February, it was a great success.  I got to hang out with my two little men.

Mark’s favorite (hands down) was rock climbing. That was his first time ever doing it, and, man, he was on fire! He climbed that was a least ten times.

Unsure at first…

Getting there…

Wow, that is high…

Alex loved rock climbing as well, and he conquered a few challenging sides. But he really enjoyed the bouncy castle (in the background) and this battling with Mark.

Alex was nice enough to let Mark “win” a couple of times.

Finally, we got to do some archery.

With this guy helping us, it seemed easy. Even looking at other people shooting, I thought, it would be a breeze.

Right….I was so bad at it-haha.

Even Mark was better.

Glad our community gives us an opportunity to take part in this sorts of events. We always have so many volunteers involved in preparation and carrying out of these type of things—such an amazing example of how people can come together, get organized and create something meaningful and fun. Hopefully, we’ll have this activity night next year as well.

Lyana.

Holkham Beach

This year we’ve had a very mild winter. No snow. No subfreezing temps during the day. Nothing wintery, except a very-very cold wind. I believe I started seeing trees blossoming in January, which is just crazy to me. One particularly sunny Saturday in March, we decided to go to the beach. Robert went running in the morning, while I packed our lunch, and then we were out of the house by 9:30. Sorry kids, this trip is under two hours, you don’t get to watch movies (1:53 min is UNDER two hours, right?).

This map will show you our route to Wells-next-the-Sea. I mean, how cool of a name is that? Our GPS took us to the coast via some picturesque country roads and ancient village streets.

Holkham Beach Reserve is an awesome open place! When I read what people were saying about this beach, I underestimated the vastness of it.  To get from the parking lot to the beach itself is an adventure, we had to walk for about a mile through some mud and wet sand.  I saw some people walking through the sand with their strollers, and I don’t envy them.

Only half way there after crossing a small river that forms with high tide. The best invention ever—WELLIES! (rain boots).

Nearly there. We can see the water.

None of the kids complained! They were so excited to go play.

It turned out to be indeed a very sunny day, but man, it was windy too. Incidentally, I grabbed our kite last minute and I am so glad I did. Katya and Alex played together for a long time with that kite..until it broke. They had a blast, a very windy blast.

It was so windy, that I had to wear my gloves, my hood and my hat to stay warm. All our stuff was full of sand blowing towards the sea.

While I was reading my book (something happened to that book, by the way, and I still cannot find it--maybe it was buried in the sand?), Robert and the kids went crazy on the dunes.

“Hey, mama! We are going to go rolling down the dunes!”. That’s me, reading my lost book (it may or may not be in Russian).  Yes, I was the only person reading my book on the beach, everyone else was walking with their dogs.

And back to crazy kids.

Here goes Mark, having the best time ever!

Who needs roller coasters?

“Come on, Mark, I’ll show you the best trick ever!”.

“Make sure your whole body, including your head, is rolling in the sand.”

We stayed at the beach for almost four hours. This is definitely a great beach to explore. Many people had the same idea as us, so we saw a ton of people here, but we never felt crowded because it is such a vast coastline. Between April 1 and November 1, dogs are not allowed, but since we were there in March, we saw lots of families walking  and playing with their dogs.

Oh, we cannot wait till it gets a bit warmer so we could go play at some sort of beach again. I think next time, we’ll head to the eastern coast.

Bye for now,

Lyana.

“Get’cha Head In The Game”.

Throughout the year our Youth Center on base (this was true in Misawa as well) offers organized practices and games of several sports—football, American football, basketball, and softball. I am always a bit hesitant to sign up because a lot of games are held on Saturdays, which kind of makes it hard to go anywhere exploring on weekends. Basketball is played November-February with no Saturday games or practices, so, since Alex was begging to get involved, we decided to sign him up.

For six weeks, Alex just had practices once a week, and then games were added on top of that. He was on the team of 7-9 year old boys.  Alex LOVES playing basketball. He loved being part of the team! And he also got a lot better at dribbling the ball, passing and making the basket. He still did not forget to add a little dance on the court when he had a spare minute…

Finally, on March 1st, we had a closing ceremony for basketball, where all the players got their medals and t-shirts.

This is our coach, who is actually one of the colonels on base.

Here you go, Alex, another trophy to your collection.  Cannot wait till he plays sports with score keeping and real awards.

And a t-shirt to remember Alconbury basketball.

“Next year, I am doing basketball again, for sure!”.

Here is team “Magic”. We are grateful for people who volunteer their time to make it possible for our kids to play sports and have so much fun!

And since we are talking about Alex, here is a quick update on him. This winter, when Alex was not playing basketball, playing the piano or doing homework, he was reading. This kid…seriously…I think he wakes up with a book in his hand and goes to bed while reading his book. I am trying to teach him not to read while eating breakfast.  I usually don’t mind when he is reading books, but when it’s Harry Potter series for the fifth or tenth time…I do mind. So I am still searching for fictional books, that he’d get into like he did into “Percy Jackson”. He loves those “I survived…” books that tell you about how people survive during different natural disasters and non-fiction but he needs variety.

Alex is doing very well in his Year 4 (3rd grade) class, being on top of his class in most subjects. He absolutely loves music, and still goes to choir and orchestra at the school before school instruction begins. His headteacher (principal) takes him out, along with couple more students, for a writing session each week, since he excels in writing, but Alex really wants to stop doing that because he misses music when he goes writing. Yeah, funny boy.

I am just happy that he is happy at this Brampton school and loves learning so much!

Cheers for now! I have to go make my lunch now…and then clean our bathrooms. Chores are always waiting to be done even when living in England. This is when I am jealous of my sister’s life in India.

Mark’s New Love

Guess what Mark’s teachers told me when I went to talk to them during their “parent-teacher conference”? They said that Mark is so cute and obedient that they want to keep him forever. I cannot deny his cuteness. His smile is so adorable that it brightens my day whenever I look at him. I still miss him very much during the day when he is at school, but I know he is well taken care of and is learning so much during his school hours.
When I pick him up from school at 3:05, Mark always asks this question first, “Do you have any special snack for me?”. Because we have to wait till 3:25 or so for Alex to come out (older classes finish later), Mark usually loves to have a snack from home. So now, it’s a habit. He eats his snack, finishes his lunch food, and plays in the school playground while we wait.
And when we finally get home, Mark has a snack AGAIN. Lately he’s been asking for oatmeal with frozen blueberries every single day, probably twice a day. His other favorite snack is mandarin oranges, and they are sooo good here, so I let him have them whenever he wants them.
So a new thing that Mark has been doing a lot is coloring, drawing, writing and painting. I have no idea how to draw properly, so I feel like I never really do crafts/drawings with our kids because I don’t know how myself. I am grateful that at school, they are given an opportunity to explore their artistic talents and find out what they like. So Mark’s new love is coloring and drawing. He does it every day after school. He does it when we are travelling or at church. It’s amazing to me!

This is Mark helping me paint his name letters (I got some new wooden letters for their names). He was so excited to help me with this project. If only I did more crafts myself, it’s just so not me. Robert can help him.

As soon as Mark discovered he could write, he decided he’d start writing invitations to his birthday party (that is ten months away?)to each of his classmates on huge pieces of paper. He is getting better and better by writing letters and stories and even lessons for family home evening (if I help him decide what to write). I am very impressed because at this age, Katya and Alex were not into writing and reading yet. Again, I am grateful, that my kids love learning and discovering their skills.
Well done, Mark! I hope you draw me lots more pictures and write lots more letters to display on our fridge. Love you!

Robert’s First Half Marathon

2 hours and 7 minutes. 

That’s how long it takes to bake 15 dozen chocolate chip cookies in my house.  (and about half that time to eat them)

From our house that’s a train to London and back.

There’s just enough time there to log on to lds.org and stream a session of General Conference.

Or you  could spend that amount of time doing house work on Saturday and have the whole rest of the day to PLAY!!

Sometimes it takes me that long just to write a blog post because it’s usually past my bedtime and I can’t seem to think through the fog in my tired brain.  (Believe it or not, that’s not the case right now.  It’s actually only 8:49PM, so I’m good for another 2 hours and 7 minutes.)

For me, 2 hours and 7 minutes is a time that has marked me for the rest of my life.  It represents, of course, the time it took me to run my very first half marathon (yes, I’m proud of myself and I’m actually giving myself a pat on my back right now . . . ).

Meet my team.  It’s their fault I signed up for this thing in the first place.  Well, I guess I encouraged them by advertising my New Year’s resolution to run a half marathon. 

Here’s my other team.  Though they didn’t run the race with me, they supported me all the way through my training and to the finish line.  Lyana especially supported me and made sure there was time every Saturday for my long runs so I’d be ready on race day.

Just moments before the horn.

Sadly, no pictures during the run.  Probably a good thing, though.  You wouldn’t have wanted to see me huffing and puffing along like a tired out steam train.  The hills were especially grueling.  There were three very steep hills: one at 2 miles, one at 8 miles and the steepest one at 12 miles!!  I decided that somehow the entire race was uphill, which is confusing because the course went in a loop.  There were times I wasn’t sure I would make it. I didn’t train for mountain running.  What got me through?  1) knowing my family was waiting for me at the finish line.  2) the water stations.  Never did water taste so good.  3) those sweets they gave out at the water stations.  Mmmm, pure sugar.  Oh, and 4) my ego.  There was no way I was going to go home and say I almost finished my first half marathon.

So while I was out there wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into, Lyana was back with the kids at the finish line waiting and waiting and waiting.  Trying to entertain children for 2 hours and 7 minutes (yup, I just worked that in again) is not an easy thing.  Luckily they marshals recruited Alex so at least he was occupied.  I hope he didn’t guide any runners astray.  He’s actually pointing that arrow the wrong way in this picture. 

That yellow vest was perfect.  As I crested the last little hill, Alex was easy to spot.  He ran up to meet me and he and I ran the remainder of the race together.

Only a few yards to go . . . you can do it Alex!

Finito!!

After we all finished, all we could think about was FOOD!!  That might explain our attempts to eat the MEDALS which unfortunately were not made of chocolate.

That day I said I would have to really consider whether or not I would ever want to run a half marathon again.  After all, it’s not like I’m addicted to running. 

Rob

PS Three of us just signed up for the “Great Fjord Run” in Norway on September 6th.  It’s a half marathon. Let me know if you want to come. 

The Young Americans

One of the cool things about living on a military base overseas is that we get all sorts of entertainers from the US come visit us to make us feel like home. This time, The Young Americans were performing for the first time at RAF Alconbury. The Young Americans is a group of young adults ages 18-23 who love performing arts—dancing, singing, acting. A lot of them join this group after graduating high school to gain more experience in stage performance. They travel all over the world—several groups at the same time in different regions—and organize workshops with kids ages 9-18. Basically, in two days, they teach the kids dances, songs, and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, until they are ready to show off what they prepared to the parents and guests.

When I first found out about it, the age group that they were asking for was 6th grade and above. Since Katya was not old enough, I didn’t pay much attention. As the date for the event was coming closer, our Force Support Squadron, who was sponsoring the Young Americans, announced the change for the age limit to 4th grade and older. Moreover, they found funds in the Squadron’s budget to make this workshop free for all children, as originally it was $45 per student!

Katya got really excited about the idea, and we decided to go ahead and sign her up, although that meant she had to miss a whole day of school (Friday), plus practice all afternoon on Thursday and Saturday.

The organizers were also asking for families who would be willing to host a couple of students for three nights. So we volunteered and got two wonderful girls—Jenny (pictured below) and Courtney (whose picture I failed to take!!).

 

They were wonderful fun guest and really easy to accommodate. The girls were vegetarian, and I actually requested them since many families shy away from cooking healthy vegetarian meals. I am not scared any more of vegetarian food-haha (I WAS six-seven years ago though).

Jenny and Courtney went along with all our regular weekend events such as partying outside with our street neighbors, making s’mores and hot cocoa, and just chatting with so many other Americans (by then they had been travelling Europe for three months, so they were definitely excited to feel a bit of home away from home).

Oh yes, and the performance of course. The show was held at our high school’s gym. And it was packed!

This is Katya and I right before the show.

The youngest-blue group, kids from the elementary school, before the show.

The Young Americans performed their regular show for an hour at first. They danced, and sang, and sang some more. They went through different hits from all eras of the last century.

They had a short showcase of popular boy bands…

…and most famous female artists.

They gave tribute to Japan (as they go there on tours regularly and a group of the YA was there when THE earthquake happened).  And their finale number was all about Lion King.

During the second hour, our school kids joined them. I believe a total of 178 children participated. They danced A LOT.

Kids had an opportunity to volunteer and be picked for some solo parts as well—for some it was dancing, for others a few lines of singing. Katya said she raised her hand when the elementary school kids were asked if anyone wants to audition. She sang a quick part from “Popular” from Wicked with all her acting and singing. And she got picked to sing a short expert from “Annie” the musical.

She did great (although forgot a few words-haha)!

All children had a blast!! It was an evening they will never forget because each of them felt like a performer.

Alex was jealous, of course. This is all right up his alley as well. I am glad though we did something that just Katya could participate, as that made her feel extra special. Now I just need to find a performing summer camp or something for her.

Hope The Young Americans can come to our base again! They were so warmly welcomed here and did a great teaching our kids how to perform. Grateful that our Force Support Squadron organizes these events for us.

All right, off to bed now.

Lyana.